PCT/ES9900298 application and Spanish patent ES-2153751, being priority.
JP-62036202A. This patent allows that parcels or boxes can be stored in a pallet warehouse.
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US-6028532. An annular conveyance path links plural work station and a warehouse for temporary storage of products.
US-3889797. A main conveyor for transporting containers, each container with a plurality of staked pallets with workpieces to be processed, said main conveyor with a plurality of computer-controller subconveyers where workpieces are processed.
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The invention belongs to the technical field of the devices of storage and handling of goods, including the preparation of orders for customers.
The current automatic warehouses are pallet warehouses, based on parallel systems of shelves accessed from a linear (not a closed circuit) belt using a crane; therefore, their operation is discontinuous. A variant to this kind of warehouses is the patent JP-62036202A, which allows parcels or boxes to be stored in a pallet warehouse.
Today, in order to prepare orders for customers, the merchandise must be released from the warehouse (whether it is automatic or not), generally in pallets, unstacked and turned into parcels, and even divide these parcels then into other smaller containers. Then, orders for customers are prepared according to various methods using a great range of devices, and the merchandise is finally driven to the delivery area in groups for customers.
All these merchandise-handling processes are mostly done manually.
This invention develops an automatic warehouse to perform in a fillyintegrated and continuous way the storing and order-preparing operations, as well as more usual operations, such as unstacking (pallet and box unstacking) and their subsequent stacking (packing and palletising).
Even though this invention deals basically with the xe2x80x98hardwarexe2x80x99 needed to perform the operations mentioned, this xe2x80x98hardwarexe2x80x99, as will be demonstrated below, is very appropriate to be computer-controlled, simply by connecting its devices to a computer, which can be easily done through connections that are mostly normalised.
The inventive idea comprises one or several closed circuit conveyor belts for carrying any merchandise along its mechanisms continuously, ever following a pre-fixed direction. On each closed circuit, there is, at least: an entrance, an exit, a positioner, and storage bins. To guide the merchandise to the exit and to storage bins, diverters or baffles are provided in front of both device types. To control the warehouse traffic are label readers at entrance and at exit of each closed circuit belt, and at the entry to each bin.
Each xe2x80x98storage binxe2x80x99 can be used to store a specific type of merchandise or the merchandise for a specific customer. To take advantage of the space depending on the circumstances, two types of xe2x80x98storage binsxe2x80x99 are proposed: one of horizontal layout based on the storage on a conveyor belt, and one of vertical layout based on the storage on a multi-level elevator. Besides, in order to shorten the paths to the merchandise, especially in the case of multi-level elevators, secondary conveyor belts (branches) are attached to the main circuit equipped with a divertor.
Because customers can make orders in pallets, boxes and/or packets, other devices are designed, such as a depalletizer, a box emptier, and a positioner. Other devices, such as packers and palletizer, can be attached next to the system""s exit. The depalletizer is placed in front of the xe2x80x98closed circuit conveyor beltsxe2x80x99 for boxes, and the box emptier is placed in front of the xe2x80x98closed circuit conveyor beltsxe2x80x99 for packets. Accordingly, the packer is placed behind the xe2x80x98closed circuit conveyor beltsxe2x80x99 for packets and the palletizer is placed behind the xe2x80x98closed circuit conveyor beltsxe2x80x99 for boxes or behind the packer.
In many cases, the number of xe2x80x98closed circuitsxe2x80x99 can be reduced by using the same xe2x80x98closed circuitxe2x80x99 for boxes and packets, just by placing a box emptier on the xe2x80x98closed circuitxe2x80x99. However, it is impossible to integrate pallets and boxes on the same xe2x80x98closed circuitxe2x80x99 easily, because the depalletizer cannot work on a conveyor belt. Therefore, a minimum configuration would consist of a unique xe2x80x98closed circuitxe2x80x99, accessed through a depalletizer, merchandise is massively stored in boxes and there is a box emptier on its xe2x80x98closed circuitxe2x80x99. The output would be done through an packer and a palletizer placed subsequently.
For any operation with any merchandise, the merchandise is placed on a xe2x80x98closed circuit conveyor beltxe2x80x99, whether from the entrance to the warehouse, from other xe2x80x98closed circuitxe2x80x99 equipped with an unstacking element or any xe2x80x98storage binxe2x80x99 of the xe2x80x98closed circuitxe2x80x99. At the exit of a xe2x80x98closed circuitxe2x80x99, must be a divertor or baffle that allows the merchandise to be diverted to the exit.
Once the merchandise is on a xe2x80x98closed circuitxe2x80x99, to store, the output divertor is closed, and the diverters of the bins with space for the current type of merchandise or customer order are opened.
To recover merchandise from a bin, the bin is actuated. For making up orders, they must be done by type of merchandise and kind of package. The merchandise to be served is discharged onto the belt system, with the exit blocked. It is then considered that they are storage operations on bins assimilated to customers.
The whole system permits an easy control by a computer, only connecting each device to the computer.